Trigger Point (ITV1)
What a ruff-tuff lot those Trigger Point bomb disposal experts are. The banter is more explosive than the deadly devices they defuse.
Kerry Godliman, as Dr Sonya Reeves, swaggered into the Met’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit while new boy Rich (Mark Rowley), an Afghanistan veteran, was working on his torso definition.
‘It’s your boss we’re after, mate,’ she taunted him. ‘You can let your tummy out.’
The Metropolitan police are no strangers to sexist backchat, of course. BBC1’s Panorama exposed a nasty slice of it earlier this month.
The reality isn’t much depicted on TV dramas, though. Far more true to life if Dr Reeves had been a bloke, and he’d told a female colleague to ‘put your boobs away’. Imagine the outcry, though.
More than ever, TV fiction on both ITV and BBC seems to reflect a parallel universe where women do all the jobs that matter. The past couple of weeks have seen a female maths genius saving the world from rampant AI in The Iris Affair, a female doctor tackling a small-town conspiracy in The Ridge, and an all-female, all-menopausal punk band forming on Riot Women.
Even the new adaptation of The Forsytes focuses chiefly on the women. Soames and his cousin Jolyon are relegated to the status of plot devices.
Rich’s boss is a woman, of course — Explosives Officer Lana Washington (Vicky McClure), the ruffest-tuffest of them all. When a suspected car bomb is reported on wasteland, she skips over the tripwires and strips off her protective suit and helmet, so she can work unencumbered.
Jason Flemyng, Nabil Elouahabi, Vicky McClure and Eric Shango pictured at a screening of the new ITV series Trigger Point on Thursday
Since its debut in 2022, the series has followed bomb disposal expert Lana Washington and her team of ‘expos’ in high-octane situations
The top brass watch in open-jawed admiration as she rescues a hostage and rushes him to safety with seconds to spare.
The bomb is a chemical weapon, releasing cyanide ‘extracted from natural sources — cherries, plums, apricot stones, that sort of thing’.
Obviously, there’s a Women’s Institute maniac on the loose.
Wherever Lana goes, she’s accompanied by a patrol of police armed with assault rifles and laser sights, guarding her left and right. She strides along without blinking, like Darth Vader with a squad of stormtroopers.
Be thankful for women like Lana, because macho Rich is worse than useless. He’s got a lot less brains than biceps.
Called to a terrorist incident at a college, he discovers a lecturer chained to a waterpipe in a basement that is rapidly flooding. Rich goes into a proper tizz, poor love, and starts flapping.
Instead of going to fetch some bolt-cutters, he attacks the chains with a pair of nail clippers. ‘I just need to find a weak link,’ he gasps.
Oh, Rich sweetie . . . you are the weak link.
The lecturer drowns, and Rich is just going under for the third time when Lana dashes to the rescue.
Will she save him? Tune in on Monday night to find out . . . but I’m not too worried. La Boss is here, and the Force is with her.
